Breast screen myths 'busted'

I'd been prompted by a couple of things; a friend had said she was going - and she wasn't 50 yet, I had a family history, and up until a couple of months ago I hadn't realised it was free from age 40.
The other thing I'd just found out, after talking to Vicki Pridmore from Breastscreen Victoria, was that not enough of us "women-of-a-certain-age" are getting it done.

"Women are a sort of central plank if you like of families, and social interactions tend to put other people before their cause, and so they don't tend to prioritise that screening appointment every two years," Ms Pridmore says.

Sixty per cent of women aged between 50 and 69 are getting screened, but this is well below the national target of 70 per cent - and it worries Breastscreen Victoria.

"There's some concerns around whether or not it will hurt, how long will it take, some women don't know still that it's absolutely free, or that it's with a woman, and they don't know ... that it generally takes about ten minutes," Ms Pridmore says.

It was quick.

I was met at front reception by Nola who asked me a few questions, checked my details, and then gave me a gown and popped me into one of the waiting cubicles where I could leave my things.

But it was during the short wait in the cubicle that I felt a sudden urge to run.

Then I thought back on what my friend Meryl had said driving back from her first screen the week before.

"A lady that I worked with, when she was in her early 40s, just felt she should go and have a mammogram. She had no family history. And when she did she went, and she had breast cancer.

"She made it then her mission to tell everyone that she worked with, and every woman that she came across, not to wait until they were 50, to go after they were 40, because if she had've waited until she was 50, she said, I' would've been dead."

Screening can pick up small cancers - those you can't feel - the smaller the find, the more positive the prognosis.

I had nothing to lose.

The cubicle door opens and I'm greeted by the relaxed and smiling radiographer - Fiona Gall - who tells me she's going to take four pictures; two of each breasts.

"We do need to compress the breast, it shouldn't be painful, it should just be kind of a tight sensation, similar to having your blood pressure taken, except obviously on your breast, which is a little bit more sensitive," Ms Gaul says.

She says she hasn't had any women "run out" of the x-ray room yet.

"You're breasts are such a sensitive and hormonal area, and that varies considerably between women."

She agrees flattening the breast isn't a natural thing, but there is method in the madness.

"Because your breasts are right where your lungs are, any sort of movement is going to show up on blurring, and that's going to make your images non-diagnostic.

"Also, it reduces the thickness of the breast, and so that's going to reduce your radiation dose, and it also means (they're) an even shape, so you're going to get uniformity across the image," Fiona explains.

So breast screens are a little bit awkward, but they're not painful, and, as I found out, not just for women with a family history of breast cancer, either.

"There are women who believe that if it's not in their family, then in fact they don't have to worry. We went back and had a look at probably 20 years' worth of data, and of all the breast cancers diagnosed in that period, more than 70 per cent of them were from women who had absolutely no family history," says Vicki Pridmore.

My screening comes to an end, and in a few short minutes I'm dressed, and heading out the door.

A few weeks later I get the results - all clear - see you in two years.

To make an appointment call Breastscreen Victoria on 13 20 50.

Pink Ribbon Day is the 25th of October - with money raised going to the Cancer Council of Victoria.